Newport is considering changing the name on a portion of Central Avenue to Ovation Way.
The portion of roadway is about 90-feet long, located between West 3rd St. and the flood wall to the north. The city said the potential name change creates consistency with the existing and future public rights-of-way within the Ovation development.
“All the street signage, including what’s on the side of the building and what’s on the street, all say Ovation Way now, and now it is commonly known as Ovation Way, and is no longer being referred to as Central Avenue any longer,” said Newport Assistant City Manager Brian Steffen.
Newport officials said that the name has created confusion and conflicts with street signage, navigation systems and online mapping services. Planning and Development Services has requested that the city commission act to change the street name before GIS records can be updated to reflect the correct designation.
The commission held a first reading of the change at its Jan. 12 meeting.
“What precipitated looking at this is really the 4th Street Bridge closure, and how this is going to affect wayfinding, online mapping services, and that,” Steffen said. “What I noticed myself was that, depending on where you were coming from, to get to Ovation Way, Google, Waze, those types of services would send you a whole range of different ways, including the opposite direction along Ovation Way.”
The 4th Street Bridge officially closed on Monday at 9 a.m. The bridge, connecting Newport and Covington across the Licking River, is expected to be completely demolished by April. The new bridge is slated to be completed by the fall of 2028.
You can learn more about that project here.
According to the city, this does not transfer the street to Corporex. The roadway will remain a public right-of-way.
“I just appreciate staff putting that map out there for the public so that there is a clear understanding of the amount of that street name changing,” said Newport Commissioner Mike Radwanski. “It’s just 90 feet.”